Broome

Its hot and steamy, the tropical north. We've been staying at Palm Grove Caravan Resort and it's been fantastic here. Huge trees (haven't seen trees this big since Perth) a great pool and nice amenities. And we've met some lovely families. One we kept running into all day around town, they're staying here at the caravan park and heading our direction around the country. So, today we are going to join them and drive along the first bit of The Gibb River Road to Windjana Gorge.
It's been a quick visit to Broome but we've packed it all in. We walked around Chinatown, saw a pearl being harvested from an oyster, went to Matso's ginger beer brewery, swam at the pool, rode camels along the beach and saw the dinosaur trackways (well the tide was coming in so we didn't see much).

On to Port Hedland and Broome

The road north of Karijini quickly turned to flat boring plains with small shrubs. The most exciting thing was the number of road trains coming out of the iron ore mines. When we stopped at the Auski roadhouse for a break a driver of one of the "Quads" (yes, that's 4 trailers!) let the boys climb up into the cab and told us about his life. They do 15 hr shifts out of Hedland to the mine 400km away, he seemed to like his work.
We were offered a space in the driveway of a family we'd met at church in Exmouth. So we pitched there for the night with Graeme and Sandy and enjoyed a lovely sunset and dinner at the yacht club. They also had some connections with the Seafarers who transport the crew off the huge bulk carrier ships into town. Evan and S got to have a ride on the launch as it picked up and dropped off people from the 12 enormous ships docked in the port.
We left the next morning for the 600km drive to Broome. It was a bit monotonous but very little traffic for end of school holidays. It's very hot and humid here. We've reached the tropical north.

The Pilbara

After driving up the desolate coast from Shark Bay to Exmouth I wasn't expecting the rugged beauty of The Pilbara. Horizontally to diagonally bedded, iron red mountains rising out of the golden plain, dotted with flowering spinifex grass and green mallee gums, against the blue sky. The earth is so red, it's no wonder its dotted with iron ore mines. And the fine red dust gets into everything. The kids have a Pilbara dust tan.
There are several hundred kilometres between Exmouth and Tom Price, however, even though there is no town on the road there are turn offs to mines and stations along the way so you don't feel totally isolated.
We spent the night at a road side rest area and drove into Tom Price on the morning.
The 60 km short cut, dirt road was great. After a quick stop in town we drove up the 4wd track to the summit of Mt Nameless, what a view at 1016m!! Looking down to tiny Tom Price below and onto Karijini NP and an open cut mine on the other side of the mountain. The countryside is spectacular!

Karijini NP

The Pilbara is a landscape of flat, stony spinifexed plains and jagged, red ironstone hills and mountains, dotted with green and white gums.
Once inside Karijini NP you follow the roads and find that the flat plains just open up, like a huge gash is the land to reveal a spectacular gorge.
Dales gorge is only a couple of hundred meters across and maybe a kilometre long. The white snappy gums around its rim contract the red bedded rocks. These are old rocks, laid down in ocean sediment 2.7 billion years ago! The banding or coloured layers are a result of the change of oxygen levels and available iron in the oceans caused by volcanic activity and our friends the photosynthesising Stromatolites. Millions of years later these rocks were lifted upwards when two tectonic plates collided, giving us the bedded mountains and gorges of the Pilbara.
As you step down down into the gorge you are able to see layer after layer of rock, right down to the impressive steps of Fortescue Falls. They look like they have been cut out if the landscape. Following the path for another 10 minutes along a green vegetated path you emerge at Fern Pool. Yes there are ferns, fig trees and paper bark and the fruit bats squawk from the trees above. The pool is blue fresh water, too deep to stand, with small fish happy to eat the skin off your feet if you leave them hanging off the wooden platform for too long. Some of these pools are said to be so cold they'll give you hypothermia but not this one today. The aquifer is running a nice 25°C by my estimate.
We crossed many dry river beds on our way in, however, there is an abundance of water down here. And where's it all going?
We had a wonderful time in Dales Gorge. When we return I want to explore the other gorges but the kids are to little at the moment.

On the road again

We have had such a wonderful, relaxing week here in Cape Range National Park. It was getting quite tiring trying to cover such great distances day after day with rest days only here and there.
It was also wonderful going along to church in Exmouth to the Good Friday service on the beach and the Easter Sunday service at the church in town. The people were all so welcoming. Frank the minister and his wife Jo had us over for morning tea the minute they met us. We joined a family visiting from Port Hedland to snorkel at Lakeside (and we'll probably camp in their front yard on our way north). We were invited to a BBQ on Sunday arvo where the boys hunted for giant Easter Eggs.  We went to Julie and Ian's house to bath the kids and have a shower (there are no showers in the NP). Jody cut the boys hair at her salon in town. It feels like we know half the town and we've only been here a week. If we ever disappear from Sydney you'll know where to find us.

Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range NP

We've really been enjoying the past few days, being forced to slow down. I have not missed all the driving.
Yesterday, Good Friday, we joined a church service on the beach at sunset. It was great to talk to the friendly locals and meet some others from out of town.
One family we met invited us to go snorkeling at a great spot they know south of Lakeside in the NP. A king tide was coming in and it was hard swimming through the current but I made it out to the coral a few times. There was a very large sting ray in the sand on the bottom. Lots of beautiful tropical reef fish and a turtle! He was happily eating seaweed on the bottom and not worried about the fast flowing current above.
A large school of fish jumped out of the water several times as if being chased, and they were, a small pod of dolphins came in quite close but by the time I got in the water they'd swam back out.
Later we found the secret entrance to Salsalis, the tent resort for some serious Glamping. I didn't think I could make it in unnoticed for a quick shower. Never mind, I'll have to find a generous parishioner this morning who'll let us wash at their place.
PS chocolate easter eggs don't keep their shape when its 37°C.